Q: how to restore files & how to do better in the future

[l3xz]

Hello everyone,

Yesterday the SSD with everything on it died on me, took a few good hours to try and see what’s the problem but in the end it was the SSD.

Great, no issue, I have everything backed up by Duplicati… well, I forgot to export the configuration file for that Duplicati instance… well, I did for all of them but now I learned about this minor oversight on my part. I took action and fixed this.

When trying to restore the backup from source, Duplicati sees that there are files, sees the content of the backups (got 1 backup per day for the last 6 months) but when I try to restore it, well, success but nothing is there.

I use Ubuntu Desktop on both my PCs and use the same path for what I’m backing up - /home/user/docker. The contents of docker is what I’m backing up, minus Duplicati itself.

Right now I’m trying this:

Restore from B2 with no local database

Thanks for that update. Situation is clearer now. You’ll have to recreate the local database. meaning: You didn’t save Export and didn’t save any database, but you can manually add job as best you can. After that, click job on home page, click Database, look at Local database path to see where it is. Wherever Arch put them is what you could save if you want to avoid having to recreate backup data. After saving, don’t run Duplicati until you’re back, so destination and its database will r…

I’m following the steps listed there - I’m using WebDAV to backup my files to a ‘Cloud’ service provided by my ISP.

And I’m wondering… what can I do in the future to better protect myself from such issues?
Is backing up the export file enough? Do I need to recreate it every few months?
Are there any additional files that I should also backup beside exporting the config for each backup job that I set?

Thank you,

LE: Following the above post everything worked, I was able to restore everything.
If anyone stumbles here and is using Duplicati via Docker, set your PUID and GUID to 0 and 0 when restoring otherwise you might encounter errors when trying to restore files.

One question remains for me right now, when trying to restore a backup, I can see all the versions available but in the Duplicati GUI under Restore it does not seem to know how many versions and their size. This is after recreating the database.

I’ll need to search to see if I can make it see them. Currently, I’m afraid to backup data on the same location as to not overwrite any files and ruin what I already have.

[ts678]

@l3xz

If anyone stumbles here and is using Duplicati via Docker, set your PUID and GUID to 0 and 0 when restoring otherwise you might encounter errors when trying to restore files.

Duplicati’s Docker doesn’t need that. LinuxServer’s often does, even for backups.

@l3xz

when trying to restore a backup, I can see all the versions

seems to contradict the below, but maybe you’re talking about some different spot:

@l3xz

under Restore it does not seem to know how many versions

Don’t expect sizes, but Restore dropdown after DB recreate should show versions.

[l3xz]

I can see versions but it doesn’t show sizes.

With this in mind, is it safe to start generating new backups pointing to the same output location?

And yes, I’m using the Linuxserver image, fixed all my problems, restored everything and everything works fine.

[ts678]

@l3xz

it doesn’t show sizes.

I don’t think it ever shows sizes there. Have you seen them there before?
Home screen shows a size of the backup, but it’s only updated after one.

@l3xz

is it safe to start generating new backups pointing to the same output location?

How tight is your space? Probably not worth worrying about unless borderline full.

Any Duplicati backup only uploads changes, so if you do a complete restore then continue doing backups, difference between restored Source and next is minimal.

Since you lost at least one job configuration, if new one is bigger, it will boost size. Looking at what’s in the old restore should give you an idea of what lost config did.

If you’re talking about a complete new set of destinations, that’s a different story…

[l3xz]

What I’m referring to about size is this:

The first one is what I already have, and the second one is the one that I generated from backup.

And no, I have restored everything from the backup, and I’m continuing adding from that point going forward.

I have about 500GB free, so even if it generates everything from scratch I’ll be good for 6 months, and then it will start deleting the oldest backup every day.

I was more worried about it not overwriting DB files from prior backups, the ones that I used to restore everything today, but even then I’d still be good since I’ll have at least one backup working. Now that the dust has settled, I’m not that worried anymore about this, since I’ll have one working copy going forward.

Thank you so much for clarifying everything!

[ts678]

@l3xz

the second one is the one that I generated from backup.

Meaning generated from backup destination via recreate, I assume.

“Last successful backup: Never” and my comment on that case was

@ts678

Home screen shows a size of the backup, but it’s only updated after one.

No update after Recreate. I don’t know if this is a job you had export for, but

is how one can tell Import to pull such data from Export – but usually it’s stale.
Most people probably don’t want to export after each backup, but it’s possible.

@l3xz

I was more worried about it not overwriting DB files from prior backups

There’s only one DB file per job, and its path is on the Database screen.
At the Destination for that second job are a lot of files that recreated DB.
Assuming I understand your Recreate, it all should be in alignment now.
The Restore dropdown on second job should match remote dlist files.
Newer backups may eventually delete some, based on retention setting.
You’ve probably seen the DB buttons already, but that’s manually driven.

If you still have concerns, ask, especially if I misunderstood your doings.